Dash to take on Sky Blue FC

The Houston Dash will travel to New Jersey Saturday to take on seventh-place Sky Blue FC. Times have been tough for the Dash, as the team recorded another loss this season against Orlando Pride June 23. It was the fifth consecutive defeat for Houston this season, and they are one loss away from the club's longest losing streak which was in their inaugural season in 2014.

The losses have been frustrating in more ways than one, of course. Not only have they been one-goal victories for the opposing teams, but Houston has not scored a goal since May 7 in their 2-1 victory over FC Kansas City.

Hope for the Dash comes in the shape of taking the lead and keeping it; the two matches Houston has notched wins in occurred after the team took the lead and held it. However, the biggest stat up against them is they haven't held leads long — no more than 60 minutes during the entire season.

As it seems to be quite often, Houston will need to find a way to sync together and not only score, but hold that lead and deny Sky Blue the chance to hit the net as well.

They have a chance to take advantage of Sky Blue coming home after a 2-1 loss on the road to league-leaders Portland Thorns. Sky Blue had scored early thanks to forward Tasha Kai, but Portland quickly bounced back, tying after 8 minutes and then grabbing the game-winning goal in the second 45 minutes.

SBFC also has the lowest point average in games they've led in the league. So there is a bit of possibility for Houston to capitalize on these areas.

However, Sky Blue has been tough this year; they don't go down without a fight and 10 of their 11 matches in the season thus far have been decided by one goal or less. They also have a six-game unbeaten streak against the Dash. Oh, and they will be on home turf.

Houston will need to tighten up and be fierce on both ends of the field to get one up on SBFC.

Kick off will be at 6 p.m. Central time Saturday at Yurcak Field in Piscataway, New Jersey.